


Every Child's Dream

by Ghostlyfluffster



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Kids, Kids learning more about themselves, Kids learning to use their powers, Powerstuck, Superherostuck, Superstuck, There's also a hint of, all that good stuff, coming of age story, parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 19:25:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10497897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostlyfluffster/pseuds/Ghostlyfluffster
Summary: John Egbert has been placed into a program where he can learn to understand and control his powers. New friends are made, as well as future enemies.





	1. Office Buildings Are Like A Second Home

A prankster's work is never done, or at least, it sure seemed like it was never done. From the first few months of life, John Egbert was able to scare the shit out of people with a simple sneeze. It was adorable, sure, but a strong blast of wind was normally simultaneously summoned along with it. Even as a baby John found this to be hilarious. The other people, however, did not, especially when the wind knocked something out of their hands or blew a few shirts over peoples' heads.

Given time, John's powers grew. Weak tornadoes formed when he threw the occasional tantrum. A gentle breeze filled the air when he became too hot to function, even in rooms where all the windows were shut and the AC wasn't on. Every now and then, he even managed to lift himself off the ground a few inches. However, as he grew older, he also became more careful about using his powers. He didn't want to be taken out of public school because he actually had friends there, so he always tried his hardest not to let the wind do whatever it wanted, even during times when it felt nearly impossible. Sneezes were just hard to control, alright? 

Knowing full and well that he wasn't the only one in the world with powers, he wasn't entirely ashamed or afraid of himself. People with powers always grew up to be great in whatever they did. A night didn't go by when he didn't see some masked hero make the news. He couldn't go to a store without seeing colorful comic books waiting to be picked up at the check out line, often times inspired by true stories. Well, at least, that's what his dad always told him. 

Despite the burden of hiding his powers, John was a rather happy kid. He acted like a normal, well, kid. He played, he learned, he had plenty of embarrassing moments, so forth and so on. None of that seemed to change after his tenth birthday, but he did feel like he was bigger. He was in the double digits now! He was practically an adult. A tiny adult that still needed his dad's help when it came to breaking eggs or reading some kind of difficult book. 

As always, when his dad wanted to go somewhere, John was forced to follow. Not only were babysitters expensive, but it was also kind of risky just in case John suddenly lost all control. It never had happened and hopefully it never will. Daycare stopped being a proud option after John left the first grade. Sometimes trips to the store felt absolutely torturous, but his dad said that they weren't going to any stores. This was actually a surprise trip, and John was a fan of surprises so long as they didn't end up with him being pranked. His dad wouldn't go to the extreme of driving John an hour away from their home for it not to be a legitimate surprise. Well, he might, but he didn't really seem like he was in the prank kind of mood today.

John looked at the building they pulled up to. It looked like one of those fancy company buildings he's seen in the city. It didn't look like his dad's building, so he immediately ruled out that today was a take-your-son-to-work day. He followed his dad into the building, sticking close by his side as he looked around the bright, white walls decorated with various framed pictures of smiling people and landscapes. His dad talked to the lady behind the reception desk but John wasn't paying any attention. He was too busy looking at the people coming and going, doing what he supposed was work as usual. After a gentle pat on the back, John followed his dad again, this time down a comfortable hallway with doors on both sides. His dad ushered him into one of the rooms in the middle. The room actually looked halfway similar to his dad's office, but then again, most offices looked the same to John. This one had a couple of chairs in it, and John immediately sat down in one as soon as he was given the okay. His dad told him to sit tight while he got everything else ready and John obeyed. The man still hasn't told him what this surprise was, but that would ruin the surprise, now wouldn't it?

After waiting a few minutes, John finally rebelled ever so slightly by stealing a sucker from the desk. There was an entire jar filled with them, so surely no one would care. With that task accomplished, John returned to his seat and perked his head up when he heard someone coming in again. He also subtly slid the sucker into his pocket for later use. Either that or he'll simply forget it let it ruin in the wash.

Not so much to his surprise, his dad entered the room with a lady by his side. She wore a navy business suit and had her dark hair pulled back into a bun. John knew that a lot of people in the world looked the same, but he could name three ladies from his dad's work that could easily be her twin, or her in disguise.

"John," Mr. Egbert started, "this is Ms. Lawrence. I wanted to keep as much of this as a surprise as possible, but I think by now the inevitable has to happen." A warm smile was placed on his lips and John only grew more curious. "I know you've been struggling as of late to keep your powers under wraps. Well, this is a program made especially for youngsters like you. Ms. Lawrence here, as well as plenty of other staff members, will help you learn to control your powers."

It took a moment for his dad's words to process in his mind, and even then it sounded too good to be true. "So...this is like a superhero school?"

"Superhero after school program," Ms. Lawrence kindly corrected. "Not everyone who attends this program even wants to be a superhero. Our main goal is to allow gifted children as yourself a safe way to learn and grow. Unlike school, you won't be burdened with sitting in a seat for eight hours at a time with thirty other students. You will receive hands on training with a small group we specially selected for you. They are two other boys the same age as you. Also keep in mind, if you ever want to drop the program or take a break from it, you can. We only have your best interests in mind."

This was still all too good to be true, but reality hit him like a freight train. He's going to learn how to use his powers more efficiently. He's going to be in a group. A team! That's definitely setting him up for a life a kick butt action. He was going to live out every child's dream! With a bright grin shot back at the lady, then over to his dad, he couldn't help but rush over and wrap his arms around the man. Ten years old and he was already up to his dad's shoulders. That's the glories of a recent growth spurt for you. 

"This is so cool! I didn't even know something like this existed in the real world," he commented.

"It didn't until about two years ago," Ms. Lawrence informed. "With a rise in people being gifted with powers, the government had to do something to keep peace within the population. Instead of choosing to lock different people up, they chose to fun programs such as this. It is much more humane and efficient if you were to ask me."

John soon broke the hug but remained at his father's side. The man's arm was still placed on his son's back, as if it were a nonverbal sign that he was proud to support his son through this.

"So cool. So, when do I start? Am I gonna show up here after school everyday or every other day? And you said that there's two other boys in my group. When am I gonna meet them?"

Ms. Lawrence couldn't help but smile at his blatant enthusiasm. "We will meet every other day after school. As for right now, the other two boys are waiting to meet you. Today is the day for getting to know one another and hopefully start forming bonds with them as well. Whenever you are ready to meet them, I will happily lead you to them."

She didn't have to say another word. John had already slid past the two adults and walked out the door. "I'm ready!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for reading! I'll be sure to have the next chapter up and running sometime soon.  
> Next time: Maybe being part of a group isn't as fun as it's made out to be


	2. Flames, Screams, and Windy Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John is introduced to his teammates. Is it too late to back out now?

Ms. Lawrence led the way through the comfortable government facility. However, the further the trio went, the less it looked like an office building and the more it looked like an unsettling building in a horror movie before a murderous rampage forced the workers to abandon it or die trying. Every luminescent light was working to its fullest ability, causing the white walls around to be blindingly bright. Various doors lined the hallway. Some were open, revealing cozy office spaces, while others were closed. Eventually, they stopped at a door accompanied by a large window near the end of the hallway. Two other adults were standing there.

"The other boys are in there," Ms. Lawrence said. "I'll go on and say that they might not be easy to get along with, but it will be crucial that someone makes an attempt to turn three complete strangers into teammates. Maybe even friends. Don't tell the other two this, but I think you're the right man for the job."

John looked up at his dad to make sure that he heard that compliment as well. He did. The fatherly approval rating was off the chart. 

"Okay. How hard can it be?" he laughed. On the outside he showed nothing but pure optimism and excitement, but on the inside, there was a little bit of dread. His best friends were his cousins that he only got to see on holidays, so he had no idea where the adults got the idea that he could easily make friends. He wasn't going to complain though. This could be the perfect opportunity to make some friends. In fact, it actually is the perfect opportunity. 

"You'll have to decide that for yourself," Ms. Lawrence replied and reached into the pocket of her pencil skirt. She pulled out a small remote with one button on it and handed it to John. "If you boys need anything, press this button and someone will come in to help. You won't be allowed to leave the room for another two hours, or until I see that no progress is being made. That should be more than enough time to become acquainted with one another." With that being said, Ms. Lawrence opened the door and John took slow steps in. Once he was inside, Ms. Lawrence closed the door.

Indeed, there were two other boys in the room. The room looks like a child's play area, and being on the cusp of teenhood, nothing really did stand out to any of them. One end of the room was contained a small book section with bean bag chairs to lounge around in. The other end had shelves that contained all sorts of toys, as well as one bean bag chair that looked like it was taken away from it's home. Both boys sat in the chairs, each on opposite ends of the room. The boy over in the toy section had curly blond hair, dark skin, and wore shades despite being indoors. His arms were crossed and John couldn't tell if he was staring at him or if he was taking a snooze. The boy in the book section wavy brown hair, light brown skin, and looked like he wanted nothing more than to leave this place. He looked over at John as he entered the room, his expression rather apathetic. 

Already John could feel the awkwardness in the room. Might as well add on to the awkwardness. "Uh, hey! So you guys are in my group, right? Well, I'm John and I-"

Before much more could be said, the guy in the shades spoke up. "Save your breath. We ain't interested in being in a group. If you wanna entertain yourself, there's books over there. Nice and quiet books."

The kid over on the other side grumbled a little bit under his breath before finally burying his face in the pages of a hardback book just to groan loudly in it. "What do they want with us?! I don't want to be here and stuck with two wastes of powers and flesh. This is just a waste of time for all of us."

"Oh shut up," the blond kid groaned out. "You've been moaning and whining ever since you got here and it ain't doin' no one any good. It's just annoying."

"Really? And you haven't been complaining? And you haven't been annoying the fresh piss out of me either? I don't think that we have the same memories here, which might be the case since I could have easily blacked out of sheer boredom. In fact, blacking out would be such a nice thing right now. It would be so much better than having this conversation."

"Conversations take two, bro. Shut your trap and the convo dies."

As the two continued their bickering, John's head moved from side to side as the dialogue shifted from one person to another. How long have they been here? Why were they in such a bad mood? They should be excited! This was practically superhero training camp. This was every kid's dream! Apparently, every kid's except for those two. 

Of course John couldn't have a fun start as a leader, but isn't that what made leaders great? No matter the hard times the team goes through, the leader is always there to save the day. Surely that logic applied outside of comic books.

Right before John was about to say anything, a tickle crept into his nose. He knew what was coming. He's been practicing so hard to keep things under control when it happened, but even his hardest wasn't good enough. He tried to fight the tickling feeling by covering up his nose, but that didn't feel like it was going to work either. 

With only a small noise as a warning, John sneezed like he had never sneezed before and his nose was trying to get rid of all the nastiness built up over ten years. Of course, this wouldn't be a problem. Sneezing was just a mundane thing. However, for some reason no one has been able to figure out yet, John couldn't have a mundane sneeze. A strong blast of wind paralleled with the sneeze, knocking John and a few of the miscellaneous objects laying around off of the ground. John was even close enough to the blond guy that it messed with his hair. The other guy just got a small taste of an above average speed breeze. The wind wasn't a jerk to its master though. Right before John was about to crack his head on the ground, the wind caught him, allowing him to float in the air for a moment before he found his footing again. As soon as his foot touched the ground, the wind vanished and John couldn't help but nervously laugh for a moment. Great way to start things out, huh?

"Hehe...sorry 'bout that. This room's kinda dusty. But...yeah. I'm John and that was my power. Not sneezing a hole into the ground. That would be pretty cool, but also pretty gross. I just do a lot of stuff with the wind." Might as well get the most important things out of the way, right? Surely that would be good ice breaker.

The other two didn't really care about the warning signs. He was going to sneeze. So what? Therefore the blast came as a surprise to them and boy did it shut them up immediately. They both stopped their arguing and looked over at John after the tough blast of wind just in time to watch as his power love him enough not to let him hit the ground.

"The heck was that?!" the blond started before John introduced himself again. He definitely did not like the fact that his hair was now a mess. He grumbled and got up, going to the window to see if he can fix his hair to its original cool style. 

He tried his best to get it done while other introduced himself. His voice was pretty quiet, almost as if the kid was being cautious. "My name is Karkat, moron. Learn it 'cause I'm not saying that again." There were a few words Karkat wasn't allowed to repeat but that didn't stop him from finding other, still pretty mean words to call other people. Sometimes when he's really aggravated, his insults get a little long winded and hilarious. "My power is.. well, I'm not for sure. I can't scream too loud or it'll...do what your wind did. Or blast your ears off. Whichever comes first," he said with a shrug before continuing, "so don't piss me off!" he said a bit louder before turning back to his corner.

Since Karkat's turn was over, John turned his attention over to the blond who had started sipping on an apple juice box. He still didn't seem too happy. His other hand was practically smoking, which was cause for alarm in John's eyes. He flopped down on the beanbag chair again. His smoky hand rested on the fabric, soon burning a hole in the chair. the foam beans quickly flooded out and the kid was elevated down. "Dammit," he groaned. "Whatever. I'm Dave. If you couldn't tell, I can do a lot of stuff with fire. My hands heat up and other stuff and make fire and all that goodness. Really great," he said with a heavy amount of sarcasm. Karkat, on the other hand, couldn't help but snicker at Dave's misfortune.

Things were going to opposite of the way John wanted. They were just so hostile. How was he supposed to go about it? Maybe instead of poking around at stuff he should get straight to the point? They seemed like straight to the point kind of kids. Well, he had nothing left to lose. 

"So...why don't you guys want to be here?" Might as well go on and get the hard pressing topics out of the way. That, and John will know what he had to work against. He wanted this team to be functional and maybe even an actual team when they get older, so if he can go on and pluck out the weeds, that would be great. "I haven't really been here that long to have any of my own complaints, so sorry, I guess. My dad just told me we were going somewhere right after school and here we are. Talk about a surprise, huh?" he laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood even though he had the funniest feeling that it wasn't going to be enough. If anything, it probably was just going to make matters worse.

"We don't want to be here because its a waste of time" Karkat grumbled. "I have so many things to do around my house after school and yet I'm here talking to you two idiots." He progressively got grumpier before he noticed and calmed himself down. "My dad said I need to be here because I can't keep putting people in hospitals every time I get into a fight and I can't keep getting hurt"

That was Karkat's side of it. Now for Dave. "I could be hanging out with my friends right now. My bro just wants me here to get rid of me for a few hours. I don't see why, he doesn't even talk to me at home. I guess its also 'cause I periodically burn the futon or towels in the bathroom and I steam up the bathroom more than usual when I take a shower. I don't know." He shrugged. "Bottom line, I was forced to be here and I don't wanna be. Plus being teamed up isn't ideal. Especially since you two aren't worth my time. You don't have any complaints because you are that kind of optimistic person that loves everything they are shoved into, bunny boy." He mocked, poking fun at John's teeth. 

By now, John has learned to block out any and all negative comments thrown at his teeth. "Well, maybe this will benefit all of us. We'll spend a couple hours here and away from school and then once they let us go, we don't have to see each other until the next time we meet up. All the while, we get to learn how to not hurt people and things with our powers." Okay, so John wasn't even trying to hide the shining optimism the other two obviously hated, but he couldn't help it! He was just so excited and ready to get to work. 

"And, I guess if it'll make things easier for all of us, we don't have to think of each other as teammates. We can be...classmates. Classmates forced to work in a group project together. It's not ideal, but we still have to work together, and if we work well together, then there might be times where the adults will cut us some slack. I guess the best thing we can do is, well, not hate each other." Although John really wanted to be friends with the other two. Baby steps. He just needed to take baby steps. 

Since Dave made his territory in the bean bag chairs and Karkat made his in the book corner, John grabbed a deck of cards that was laying in a shelf and then made himself comfortable in the middle of the room. However, there was still one comment that wasn't sitting right with John. "And Dave? Can you tell me why we aren't worth your time?" As John talked, he practiced a halfway complex shuffling technique that he is determined to master this week.

"Simple. I am, at the very least, 110% better than the both of you. You'll be worth my time when you can prove to me you can get at least near my level," he scoffed. Karkat, on the other hand, got up and slowly made his way to see what shuffling technique John was doing.

"Really? I mean, you don't look all that special to me, especially not with the pimple you got right on your chin." John even pointed to the spot on his own chin to help the poor kid out. There was only a hint of meanness in his voice, after all, but it was still there. John can play with the best of them when he wanted to. 

Dave immediately got up when John said he had a pimple on his chin. He didn't notice that this morning. Damn it. He immediately rushed to the bathroom they had off to the side in the room since kids need to use the bathroom to. He shut the door and was in the for quiet a while to see what he can do about the pimple or if it was just a cruel joke to get him to shut up.

John couldn't help but grin as Karkat came over to watch him shuffle cards. Right before he knew he was going to get to the part he always messed up at, he stopped the shuffling and fanned out the cards, holding them out for Karkat to pick one. "I have a knack for card tricks, so go on, pick one. You can get in on this too, if you want Dave," he called over but kept the majority of his attention on Karkat. If he had to make friends one by one, then so be it. He will happily be Karkat's buddy before he is Dave's. 

Since John grabbed the deck from a shelf in the room and since he was wearing short sleeves, it was impossible for him to have rigged this deck and this trick in any way, shape, or form.

Karkat laughed a bit at that before he turned his attention to John. And when he stopped and held out the cards, Karkat was a bit skeptical but he decided to go with it, pulling a card out of the deck at random.

Now was about the time Dave came out and he clearly looked angry, hands being held out in front of him since they BOTH were heated this time. "I set the toilet paper on fire, we need a new roll." he informed John, assuming he would call for a Ms. Lawrence or leave it at that. Dave ignored the invitation and went to his beanbag section, sitting on the floor, alone with his hands out in front of him. 

For Dave's sake, John did press the button for Ms. Mae to come in and fix the problem. Other than that, he was just going to let Dave pout and miss out on the fun. That's what his dad always did when John was in a pouty mood, after all.

Once Karkat memorized the car and put it back in the deck, John did another impressive shuffle and then intentionally pulled out the wrong card, flaunting it off for Karkat to see. "Is this your card?" Once he saw Karkat's face of disappointment, it was officially time to start step two. 

"No, moron. You really failed."

John looked at the card and then acted like he really messed the trick up. "No? No, this totally isn't your card. Uh. Hold on please." He put the card back and shuffled again, this time messing up horribly and dropped the cards, only helplessly watching them as they scattered everywhere. "Oh no...I thought I really had it too." After a brief sigh, he looked at Karkat and squinted a little bit. "Hey. Hold on. You got a bug in your hair or something. I'll get it." He cautiously reached behind Karkat's ear and pulled out not a bug or lint, but a card. His card, specifically. John's face of disappointment immediately lit up as he flaunted off the correct card this time. "Hey, I think I know why I didn't get the right card earlier."

Karkat totally feel for it all. He watched as all the cards fell to the floor and he rolled his eyes, just letting John wallow in his own failure. Until he noticed something in his hair. And to pull out his card? Karkat was mesmerized almost immediately. He took the card to check if it was real before picking up the ones on the floor "What?! No way how did you do that?" he asked with amazement. He knew card tricks weren't real but he also didn't know how they were done and he found what john did to be awesome. He picked up the cards and put them in the stack for John, including his card "That's cool..can you teach me how to do that?"

John thanked him for gathering up the cards and shuffled them again. "Maaaaybe. A magician never reveals his secrets, but I just might sometime. I'm still practicing that one bit though. That was like the second time I've gotten it to work, so you might wanna bare with me if I ever do let you in on a secret or two." For the time being, to entertain Karkat he picked out at top card and showed it to him. Two of hearts. "This one's an easy one though. I'm gonna changed this card into the two of spades." He handed the deck back over to Karkat so the two of hearts was the only card in his hand. He clasped his hands around it and moved his hands around for entertainment purposes and then held up the card. Two of spades.

"It's all in the shuffle, really. You gotta know exactly where every single one of the cards is in the deck," he lied, but made it sound completely convincing. Pranking was in his blood, and in order to be a good prankster, he had to play the part as well. With a quick hand movement, he revealed that the two of hearts was right behind the two of spades. "If you know where the cards are, then you can do tricks like this." He grinned brightly, then placed the cards back in the deck. However, his face said that there was something wrong this time. 

"Hm. This feels like there's only fifty-one cards in here." He looked around at the floor and then glanced over at Dave. "Hey Dave? Can you do me a favor and see if there's a card over there? Specifically a Queen?" There was totally a card over there. Thanks to John's skill, he managed to push it over there with no one noticing.

Dave glanced over his shoulder at the two of them before glancing on the ground and spotting the card. He wasn't in the mood. John already got on Dave's bad side, hitting him where it hurts. His looks. Yeah, it was petty but that call out embarrassed him. Plus it made him mess up the bathroom which just added to the embarrassment. He didn't like John. So for the kid who is currently on the lowest of his personal list to ask him for something, even if it's as simple as a dumb card that made its way near him, it ain't gonna fly.

"Yeah there is..do you want it?" he grumbled lowly. He then took off a glove and picked it up, only for it to set on fire immediately and burn up right in his hands. The ashes sat in his hand "Oops. Well here's your card." He blew the ashes their way before he put the glove back on and turned back to face away from them and hugged his knees.

John should have known better than to pick on his looks, or to at least politely tell him about the pimple problem, but he was just a little fed up with Dave at the time. He's even more fed up with his now that he ruined a perfectly good card. It was the queen of spades too. That was his favorite queen!

Petty revenge probably wasn't worth it, but John also didn't like to sit around and be walked over, well, unless if it was someone bigger than him doing the walking. Dave was about the same size as his, maybe a little taller, but John didn't care. All it took was a small gust of wind and all of the foam beans from the bean bag chair went up into the air, slowly falling down around Dave. 

Dave tried to ignore the beads but some got stuck in his hair and he tried to shake them out. But just like sand, it wasn't that easy. His perfectly good fluffy blond hair was ruined!! He wanted to BURN John. But he knew that was bad so he just grumbled to himself as he desperately tried to salvage what he could of his hair.

"What's his deal?" John mumbled over to Karkat. Based on how everything was going, John was on better terms with Karkat than Dave was. Maybe he can pull a little bit of the favoritism card to get just a bit of information, that is, if Karkat knew anything.

"He.. likes attention you could say. I don't know. He cares a lot about how others view him. Especially his bro. He actually has no problem being here, but he doesn't want to work with us because he wants to be able to do it on his own without help.." He told the other though it was clear there was much more to that. But Karkat didn't know if he should disclose that information.

John was an oblivious kid at times, so things needed to be spelled out for him in order for him to get it. This was one of those times. "But I offered him to come over and he wouldn't do it. He's being really pouty if you ask me. That's how I view him."

John has lived his life in a nice little bubble. The only time anything bad happens is at school, and his dad actively tries to help him deal with various bullies. He has no idea what it's like to feel inadequate because his dad gives him all the love and support a kid would ever need and then some. He has no idea that other kids can have issues they have to deal with, and even if they did, then he would have no idea what those issues would be. He doesn't understand how lucky he is. 

Karkat can already tell that John was oblivious. Very oblivious. It's so clear, he can physically see the words above the kid's head. It made Karkat want to face palm...no not want. He did. 

"No you don't get it. He has imagery problems. It's like...I don't know, mental? He's not mentally messed up. Or may be he is? I don't think that's really the case. You do know that kids have problems, right?" 

Dave heard that part. It wasn't too big of a room and despite Karkat's low voice, Dave heard that last part. "Quit talking about me! You guys don't know shit about me, and you guys won't know shit about me. I don't want to be in this damn group, especially if you guys are talkin' like that behind my back. It ain't even behind my back! I'm in the same room as you assholes. Just leave me the fuck alone. That's what good classmates would do."

The explosion caught John completely off guard. He was so close to saying something too. So close, but for once in his life, he used his brain and stayed silent. 

For a long time, the room stayed silent. The tension could practically crush a person that came into the room. John kept his mind off of things by turning his deck of cards into a card house and even offered Karkat the chance to join in if he wanted. Just because one person was mad at him doesn't mean that both of them had to be. 

After a solid twenty minutes of keeping rather quiet and staying in his own lane, John thought that surely Dave was calm enough to handle the two words John was going to throw his way. If Dave accepted it, then good for him. If not, then at least John was able to get it off of his chest. "Sorry Dave." With that being said, John could finally focus on his house of cards.

It took a while for him to respond. "Don't say sorry if you don't mean it. I know you don't and you just wanna lighten up the room." he grumbled in response "But apology accepted. Sorry for burning your card."

John was about to give him the same spiel about not saying sorry if he didn't mean it, but that would just be fuel to the growing fire between them. 

"Do you guys want me to see if we can call it quits for today?" he asked and pulled the button out of his pocket and fiddled around with it in his hand. They were making absolutely no progress and there was no reason to keep this game up. It would probably be better to wait another day or two before they saw each other again, just so tempers can cool down and they can start at square one again.

Karkat and Dave both nodded. They wanted to head out.

When the button was pushed, Ms. Lawrence soon came with the parents. She knew they couldn't stay the whole two hours and its only been about forty minutes. With a soft sigh, she let them head to their parents. Karkat went to his smiling father. Bro and Dave just stood beside each other until they were dismissed. No hello. No 'how'd it go'. No gesture. It was nothing. He gave back the gloves and they were allowed to go. Karkat left and Mr. Egbert went to lead his son back upstairs and to the car. 

"So I take it as things didn't go so smoothly," the man sighed out. "I'm sorry. It seemed like you and that other boy were getting along. Karkat's his name, right?"

"Yeah. That was Karkat. He at least gave me a chance today, and I think he likes me a little bit. I showed him a few card tricks and he really liked them." John looked around to make sure that none of the other boys were around before he started the next round. "Dave just refuses to like me. He stayed by himself all day and burned one of the cards too. Karkat said he has his problems, but I guess I'm just not getting something here."

Needless to say, after spending forty minutes in there after spending eight hours in school, John was tired and ready to go home. As soon as they left the building, John couldn't help but slightly smile as the fresh air rushed over him. "Did I do a good enough job to earn something from Wendy's though?"

A frown couldn't help but tug at the man's lips. Just as John, he didn't expect things to be so rough on the first day. "Dave will come around. Despite his fire powers, he's the type of kid that needs to warm up to you first. And yes John, you more than deserve something from Wendy's. Whatever you'd like. You need it after all of that hard work," he chuckled and fluffed his son's hair before opening the driver's seat door and climbing inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for reading! Stay tuned for the next chapter.  
> Next time: Gym class sucks.


	3. Gym Class Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gym class has never been John's friend. Although he's not being graded, the pressure is still on to show a cocky cool kid up.

As much as John loved being in a highly secretive government program designed specifically to teach kids how to handle their powers, there was one bad thing about it; he was in a highly secretive government program designed specifically to teach kids how to handle their powers. When most kids get accepted into some kind of club or organization, the first thing they do is flaunt about it. John didn't have the luxury of doing that. He had to keep all talk of the program and his powers under tight wraps. It sucked, but it wasn't like he had anyone to talk to about it, and even if he did, no one would believe him. 

What sucked even more was the program took place after school. School was tiring and violent enough. Spending another couple of hours training was bound to exhaust his energy. 

When it was time to go in, John was already yawning and ready for a nap. After the day he's had, he was totally ready for a nap. A nasty bruise shined on his cheek and his glasses were bent a weird way on the right side. It wasn't anything that would hurt the framework, but the way it prodded at the side of his head really irritated the kid. He told his dad that it was all just one big dodge ball accident, but he had a funny feeling that his dad was smart enough to not believe that. Still, the man only fussed over how John should have been given ice earlier and how they need to find softer balls for the gym instead of interrogating John for the real answer. John was silently grateful for that. 

Once they entered the building and Mr. Egbert talked to the receptionist, they were escorted down a different hallway. Benches lined the walls and a huge window that took up the upper half of the opposite wall was directly in front of them. Mr. Egbert was asked to take a seat with the other two parents and John was then escorted further down the hallway. The room he entered look more like a gym than anything else. Shiny wooden floors caused his shoes to squeak with every step he took. Every inch of the walls that didn't have a window occupying space instead had safety pads. An athletic set of something was already set up, and upon closer inspection it looked like a high jump bar. Great. 

Dave and Karkat were both leaning against the firm padded walls, making small conversation with each other. John looked over his shoulder and saw that his escort had disappeared without so much as a word. Oh well. John headed over to where the other boys were standing. The air was stagnant and John highly doubted that a slight breeze would be able to help out.

"Hey," he greeted, only to be met with two "Why are you talking" looks. He could understand why Dave gave him the look, but he thought that he was on rather pleasant terms with Karkat. Maybe he chose to take Dave's side of things now that he had time to think about it? John sure hoped not. A group wasn't supposed to be divided like this, and it killed John to just knowing that the other boys weren't even going to give this a chance. Weren't they supposed to be excited? Who wouldn't be?! Man, Ms. Lawrence must have set him up with the dullest kids on Earth. Here John thought that she was cool. 

John didn't let that discourage him. He was determined to make this group work, goddammit. He wasn't going to let a couple of bozos ruin his chance to be just like a hero from one of his comic books. "So...do you guys know what we're doing today? Based on the looks of it, it'll be gym work. Lots and lots of gym work."

"Yeah. That's what we're guessing too," Karkat replied. "We're not even guessing. We wouldn't be in here if we were supposed to sit around and make stupid beaded friendship bracelets for three hours. What we're guessing is what kind of work they're going to make us do."

"I'm sayin' that they're gonna make us do a bunch of individual crap," Dave added. "See where we stand so they know where to start when we actually do start going through boot camp."

"That's actually a pretty good point," John hummed with a nod. "I hope it won't be too tough though."

"If you wanted it easy then why are you in this program?" Dave quickly countered. "Weren't you that one that was going on about how great this was gonna be?"

"Well, yeah, but can't I just-you know what? Nevermind."

"No, no. Go on and say what you were gonna say. You got my interest, Bugs Bunny."

"If you're gonna make fun of me, the very least you can do is use a little bit of creativity in your insults." John could see the smoke coming up from Dave's hands and slyly took a step away from him. Karkat did as well, but since he wasn't the center of attention, he managed to get a little further away. "But I was going to say that I'm just a little tired."

"Aw, does the widdle baby need a nap then?" 

"Man, shut up Dave. You can't tell me that you're not at least a little tired from dealing with school."

"Actually, I can and I will. School's a breeze for me. I don't see what you're complaining about. You're Asian. Shouldn't you like school?"

"Okay, hey now. That doesn't have anything to do with anything!" John huffed and allowed a sudden blast of wind to hit Dave. John couldn't help it! When his emotions ran high, sometimes things like that just happened, much like Dave's hands. It wasn't forceful enough to knock him down, but it was enough to knock him back a little bit. Oh, did the smoke start rising then. 

Before anything else could have been done, Karkat stepped in the middle of the two. "Both of you are acting really frickin' dumb. Hell, both of you really are frickin' dumb so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at this, but c'mon guys. There are cameras all over the damn place and the last thing anyone needs is for two guys to come in and break this petty party up." 

Dave shoved his hands in his pockets, only to quickly pull them out when he felt the heat practically melt through the fabric of his jeans. "Jesus shit. None of this is cool. Can't believe that I had to get teamed up with a crappy Dr. Phil and an even stupider Timmy Turner.

"Well, we're not too happy to be paired up with you either Mr. I-think-its-so-cool-to-wear-shades-indoors-even-though-it-makes-me-look-like-a-damn-prick."

"That is way too long to be a last name, Vantas."

"Do you honestly think I care about the accuracy of my improvised name making skills? If you do, you're even dumber than I thought," Karkat retorted.

Just as the conversation was spiraling down into the realm of fifth grade insults, a professional looking lady came in wearing a dark pantsuit and had dark hair that didn't even reach her shoulders. A clipboard was in hand and her face didn't seem as friendly as Ms. Lawrence's. 

"Good afternoon, boys. I am Mrs. Clemens. We don't have time to kill so you need to make every second count. You can continue your petty squabbling at a later time. For now, each one of you must complete a handful of tasks. Using the data recorded in these tasks, we will be able to set up beneficial training sessions. Spread out and take three minutes to stretch out," she stated with authoritarian power. "You would have had five, but your conversation seemed to be too important for me to interrupt. And before you ask, yes, I have already made arrangements for all of you to take an improvisation class. You need strength to overpower your enemies, but strength is nothing but a loaded gun. Dangerous? Yes, especially when someone has it and doesn't know the responsibility behind it. In order to use it efficiently, a smart person has to be behind the trigger."

"That's a weird analogy," John mumbled to himself and then took a few steps away from the others. The lady started the timer and the boys stretched out, getting their muscles loose for whatever they had to do. 

Soon, the three minutes was up and everyone stopped. Mrs. Clemens cleared her timer and scribbled something on her clipboard. "See that yellow line over there?" She pointed to the line painted horizontally in between two black lines. It looked vaguely like a track and John could only hope and pray that it wasn't. The evidence was pointing that way, but John really, really wished that there would be a surprise in store. The boys lined up side by side. The lines weren't big enough for all of them to be in the middle of, so John was pushed to the end since he was the last one there. 

"Make four laps around the gym. Try to make it as quick as possible. Go." 

This was John's nightmare. Gym was his least favorite part of the day, so he really didn't want to come to this program just to do even more of it. He wasn't even wearing basketball shorts. Basketball shorts would have made everything so much easier on him. Dave was yards ahead of him, and for a while, he kept up the same pace as Karkat. However, John soon noticed a pattern with Karkat. He would stay slow and steady, then make a quick break only to slow down again. John almost caught up with him on the second lap, but the kid sprinted ahead of him almost as soon as John made it. 

It was hard for John to concentrate since his lungs turned cold pushing himself so hard. He was trying so hard and yet there was still no way that he would be the first one to cross the finish line. It wasn't a race, but there was still some pride to be held for the first person who finishes. It's like an unspoken rule. 

He was too focused on trying to breath that a simple bump managed to knock him off of his poorly regulated rhythm. He stumbled a bit and stopped for a solid two seconds, watching as Dave overlapped him. 

That jerk!

Try as he might, there was no way to beat Dave. He was the first one to cross the line, then waited around as Karkat finished probably a minute after him, and then John finished two minutes after Karkat. The poor boy was panting like a dog. He rested his hands on his knees and let a cool breeze run over him. The sound of a pen scratching on clipboard was the only other sound that echoed through the room. 

Without so much as another word on the matter, Mrs. Clemens moved on to the next activity. Once John had his breathing under control, they were ushered over to a rope that was tied to the ceiling. A bell was tied around twenty feet up. As if running wasn't bad enough.

"Here's yet another simple task. Climb up and ring the bell. If you cannot climb that high, then try to make it as far as your abilities will go. You can climb down or drop down. Either way, the foam will break your fall. And John, since I've read that you can manipulate the wind to allow you to fly for a brief period of time, don't use you power for anything. If you do, then I will make you run another lap."

Dave snickered a but and John looked completely caught off guard. However, he still nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"Since Dave was the first one to finish his laps, he will be the first one to go up." She moved out of the way and gestured for him to start climbing. He shrugged and stepped up to the rope. He started with a jump and then easily climbed up. He rang the bell and dropped down without another thought, forcing the air to shoot out of the foam once he made impact. He laid there for a moment before finally sitting up and moving out of the way for Karkat to go, since they easily caught the gist that they were going in order when they finished the laps. 

Climbing a rope was harder than Dave made it out to be. Karkat struggled to get a nice grip on the rope without burning his hands into oblivion and figuring out what to do with his feet. He made it a little bit past the fifteen foot mark before forcing himself to drop down. There was no way he was going to make it another five feet. 

Next up was John and oh boy, was he not looking forward to this. The fear of accidentally using his powers was set in his mind. Sometimes the wind just had a mind of its own and didn't listen to what others had to say. It was there to protect John.

After a quick mental pep talk, he jumped up and grabbed the rope. Having little to no upper body strength, this task was already proving to be impossible. He grunted, trying his hardest to make it to at least the halfway point. If he made it to the halfway point then Mrs. Clemens would see that he was actually trying to do this all on his own. He was only mildly paranoid about having to run even more laps. 

"Dude, I wanna go home sometimes tonight," Dave commented from below. 

"Oh my god, shut up," John grumbled through breaths as he pulled himself up a few more inches. His hands were burning, both from the rope itself and how hard he was holding on to it. 

Just as he wanted, he made it to what felt like the halfway point before his body refused to go any further up. He looked down, so tempted to fall down like the other boys previously did, but just as he looked down, the world seemed to zoom out. John has never been one to be afraid of heights. If anything, he loved seeing the world from a different point of view. Falling, however, was a completely different beast that John was terrified of. The wind had always caught him and he wasn't entirely for sure if he was allowed to use the wind to break his fall or not. He really didn't want to run laps, but he also didn't want to fall and break his neck either.

"Go up or go down, John," Mrs. Clemens instructed and John had to swallow a small lump forming in his throat. 

"Are you sure I can't just stay right here?" he asked with a nervous chuckle. "Because, uh, I really can't do either.

"Oh my god," Dave groaned out and threw his head back. "Just fall. You ain't gonna kill yourself."

"Easier said than done, Dave."

"Okay," Karkat interjected, "because I want to move on and I don't want to deal with any more idiocy right now, John, drop down. I'll catch you."

"You'll break my fall, but you won't catch me," John countered. His hands felt like they were slipping down the rope. He couldn't stay up here for much longer. 

"Fine then. You'll have to come down sometime. Dave and I will already be headed home by that time."

"Okay, wait wait. Are you sure you can catch me?"

Karkat groaned before continuing. "Let go of the stupid rope, Egbert. I'll catch you." He reluctantly outstretched his arms, waiting for the kid to finally drop down.

John looked down at him, then squeezed his eyes shut for a second. The worst that was going to happen was that he might get a bruise. He wasn't going to die. It was just what? Ten feet. Ten feet only kills a person if they dive headfirst onto concrete, and even then the outcome is iffy. He took a deep breath and released the rope. As he slid down, panic set in. He couldn't use his wind, and boy was the wind not happy about that. With a split second though, he grabbed the rope again, his hands sliding down the scratchy material before he was forced to release it yet again. Sure enough, Karkat was there to catch him with an "Oof." 

The victory of living was short lived. His hands were red and they felt like they were going to burn off of his hand. He looked down at them and further inspection, finding that he got a nice case of rope burn from the fall.

"Dude, you knew you were gonna fall. You should've just let it happen," Dave said with some rather useless advice. 

"Really? Thanks for telling me," John grumbled in return. His hands felt too raw to rub together, or to even move for that matter. He could do nothing but keep his hands exposed to the air in the room. Once Ms. Clemens had finished up writing something on her clipboard, she walked over to the boys and looked at John's hands.

"You'll live," she stated. John was getting a little tired of people telling him things he already knew. "We'll give it a few minutes. Besides, the next activity won't require much handy work." She ushered the boys over to the high jump station that John noticed earlier. He might actually be good at this. 

"Each one of you will be taking turns jumping over the bar. After everyone goes, the bar will be placed higher. We will stop when the last person remaining can't continue. Once again John, no powers."

John nodded and stepped onto the foam. He tried his best to take his concentration away from his burning hands and onto the jump. He had to make this. He didn't want to have his teammates laughing at him every single time he has to do something athletic. Once he was prepared, he sprinted across the foam and jumped, twisting his body to avoid the bar at all costs. Sure enough, he made it and landed on the safety mats. Dave and Karkat soon followed suit, making what John thought to be an impressive feat to be way less impressive.

For round two, the bar was set about an inch higher. With another running start, John managed to barely make to above the bar. Karkat, however, wasn't so lucky. He was so close to making it, but the back of his foot snagged the bar at the last second, causing it to fall with him. "Totally not fair," he grumbled that and a few other things as he crawled off the mat, allowing Mrs. Clemens to place the bar back where it was. Dave was next and once again jumped over the bar with ease.

Now John couldn't help but feel a sense of rivalry between Dave. It was just them now, and maybe if John makes it further than him in this, then maybe, just maybe, he would earn a little respect from the kid. Dave didn't seem to be paying an awful lot of attention. He seemed to be drifting in and out of his own world, bored to death of the reality he was in.

John's idea didn't last too long. The bar was moved up another inch and his butt just had to be in the way. The bar was knocked off with ease and John rolled off the mat, rather disappointed with himself. 

Dave's athletic ability was impressive. Anyone had to admit that. He did the next three jumps with ease, struggled a bit with the fourth one, and finally met his demise with the fifth addition. Still, he rolled off the mat and kept his cocky stride. He knew that he was levels above the other two, and the other two knew that as well. Dave didn't have to be a douche about it though. 

"There is only one more thing we need to do today," Mes. Clemens announced. "For your next activity, we will be traveling into a different room specially designed for the task at hand. Follow me."

Much like little ducklings, the boys followed Mrs. Clemens down the hall and into a door she unlocked with a key card. On the way there, John gave Karkat a look, as if asking if he knew what the new activity was. Karkat merely shrugged and quickened his pace oh so slightly. 

The inside of the new room felt rather empty. White tile reflected the lights above and what appeared to be a small observatory stuck out against the middle of the left wall. "For this task, you must determine who is worth fighting and who is worth forgetting. Cutouts of people will appear and you will have one and a half seconds to knock them down or do nothing to them. This time, feel free to use your powers as much or as little as you wish. You will be recorded on who you chose to fight and who you didn't. Karkat, now is the time for you to go first. The other two, follow me." 

Karkat stayed in the open room, looking around as if he was just a little confused about where all of these cutouts would be coming from. Dave and John entered the small observatory with Mrs. Clemens, Dave standing on her right side and John to her left. She typed something into a smartphone and an image of an old lady popped up a few feet away from Karkat. The initial shock sent a jolt though Karkat. From the soundless booth it was hard to tell what was going on, but it looked like all Karkat had to do was open his mouth and the cutout fell over. That one shouldn't count.

So began the exercise. The cutouts were very stereotypical starting out. A little old lady with a can, and mustached man with a giant sack slung over his shoulder, a little girl holding up her doll, a spandex wearing man with a machine gun, so forth and so on. After the first minute, things began to pick up steam. Two, three, four cutouts were springing up at a time, and within that time, it was hard to address every little detail. Grandma had a gun pointed right at him, a caped man was holding up a kitten, a woman in a stained shirt was carrying a little boy, etc, etc. This went on for about five minutes and near the end, Karkat was panting and exhausted. He could feel that his record went south during the last half of the exercise. 

Mrs. Clemens opened the door. "Well done, Karkat. Now come in here. John, you're up."

John and Karkat exchanged a quick nod to each other as one entered and one exited the observatory. Now that he knew what to expect, John was pumped. This was the kind of stuff he should be doing during a superhero training camp and that's for sure! He was practically bouncing on his heels when the first cutout popped up. The old man on the walker was saved, but the man holding a gun that appeared right after him wasn't. All it took was a small gust to knock him down. Oh lady with a bloody knife, you wanted help with that potential murder you were just committing, well too bad! You got blasted too. And you little girl scout, the cookies will have to wait for another time. 

John was having way too much fun with this, but then it came to the halfway mark, it was getting rather hard to tell who needed to be knocked down and who didn't. By the time it reached the final minute, John stopped blasting people all together. He didn't want to accidentally knock down an innocent person, even though he's pretty sure that he already has plenty of times. He didn't even care about what Dave and Karkat thought of the move. In John's eyes, he was the smart one here. 

When the cutouts stopped popping up, Mrs. Clemens opened the door again, Dave was already headed out the door to take John's spot. "Pussy out?" 

"I didn't want to knock down the wrong people," he replied honestly, brushing past Dave on his way back to the observatory. Like hell Dave could do any better, even with all of his cool abilities. 

Unlike John and Karkat, Dave didn't resort to using his powers right off the bat. If the baddie was close enough, Dave would kick or punch them normally. If they were out of reach, Dave would simply throw a fireball at him. However, just like the other two, the challenge peaked at the halfway mark. He was kicking and throwing flames at the cutouts left and right without really processing who was who. By the last minute, he was taking down everything. Hardly anything escaped his fury. 

After the last cutout met its untimely demise by a flaming ball, Mrs. Clemens stepped out with the other boys. "Good work today, you three. The data we obtained today will be useful in the future."

"But we hardly did anything," Dave spoke up, waving his hands by his hips to cool them off. 

"You did just enough," she quickly replied back. "Thank you boys for your time. Your guardians are waiting behind the door at the very end of the hall." As she talked, she was marking up the paper on the clipboard even more, uninterested in what the boys did now. 

Karkat didn't have to be told twice. He was the first one to leave the room, the other two soon following behind. 

"You went kinda crazy at the end, Dave," John started since the lack of conversation was killing him three steps into their journey to freedom.

"It was better than pussying out at the very end. You do know that those cutouts weren't actually real, right? There's no punishment for burning a few of them."

"But the point of it was to see where our judgement skills stood."

"Like hell they're gonna use anything we did today as 'data.' We didn't do enough to give them in depth details. Today was just a waste of time."

John was about to say something else, but Karkat already opened the door, revealing the parents on the other side. He hurried over to his dad who placed a sturdy hand on his shoulder and lead him out without so much as a goodbye to any of them. Dave's guardian was already walking off and Dave took his own sweet time catching up with him. They're so weird. 

John wasted no time going to his dad's side. The man greeted him with a shoulder hug and lead him out of the facility as well. "I saw what you did during your little gym class. I know you weren't the best, but I'm still proud that you put in effort."

As cheesy as his dad can get sometimes, John secretly loved it. "Thanks. Gym's never been my strong suit anyway. I mean, there's a reason that I quit little league," he laughed and his dad cracked a smile. 

"Because you always blew the balls over the fence?"

"No! Well...okay. You got me. There's a lot of reasons why I quit little league."

///////

After dealing with such a long day, John was happy to be in bed. His stomach was full from a delightful homemade pizza and his body felt clean and refreshed after taking a nice, warm bath. His old, stained "You're killing me, Smalls" shirt and fleecy shorts acted as the perfect pajama substitute while his matching set was in the process of being cleaned. Still, he was so comfortable in bed. The only light in the room came from an old Gameboy he was holding up a little too close to his face. He wasn't allowed to have electronics out after nine, but his dad wasn't here, now was he? All he had to do was keep an ear out for the man and hide the device before he entered the room and his hind end was going to stay out of trouble. 

The game he was playing didn't want to cooperate with him. He kept on dying, and to to keep his sanity, John forced himself to lay the game on his chest. He rubbed his eyes with his hands and then sat up. His tired eyes caught a shadow pass his window, but he thought nothing of it for a moment. It was probably just a bird. However, when he noticed a smaller shadow smack in the middle of his window, that was when he got a little curious. 

Using his Gameboy as a light, he walked over to his window to check out the dark spot. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a card. He held the light up to the card, seeing that there were only two lines on the card, both written in fancy cursive.

"tentacleTherapist@Pesterchum  
I want to talk"

John opened up his window and grabbed the card, then carefully closed the it so a noise would not be made. He flipped the card around to see if there was anything on the back. There was, but it was just a drawing of a cat in a suit. Weird.

John crawled back into bed, staring at the card in his hand. Was this something that had to do with the program? John's mind was boggled with thoughts as he took his glasses off, set his Gameboy on his nightstand and the card under his pillow for safe-keeping, then drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for reading! I really hope you enjoy it. If you do/don't, please let me know.  
> Next Chapter: Who's the author of the note? More importantly, how do they know where John lives?


	4. The Therapist's Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a startling conversation, John has no idea who he can trust anymore.

Saturday had to be the best day of the week. He even got to take a break from his superhero training on Saturdays, which made the day even better. John loves the fact that he's slowly learning how to use his powers, but geez, he really needed a break from his teammates. He's only seen them twice and he's already exhausted.

Since he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted that was deemed reasonable enough by his father, John slept in until nine and hobbled out of bed when the scent of his dad's pancakes wafted into his room. He knew the man woke up earlier than eight, but a child always deserves a hot breakfast. That was how he saw things.

John pushed his glasses onto his face and climbed out of bed, not even bothering to deal with the wild beast known as his bedhead. He gave his dad a sleepy smile when he walked into the kitchen. While he didn't have to go into work today, he was still sporting a white dress shirt and a tie on his upper half, but sweatpants on his lower half.

"Skype meeting?" John asked, hinting around with the tease. 

"No. I was getting ready for the day and then got a little bit sidetracked." His voice held seriousness to it, but the little glimmer in his eye said otherwise. John stood beside him and watched as the man flipped over the pancakes one last time. They needed to cook for another minute and then they would be good to go. Since John was so close to him, Mr. Egbert ruffled his already chaotic hair and then wrapped an arm around his son's shoulders. 

"Well, since you're not having a Skype meeting and since you never go to work on Saturdays, you must be getting ready to go somewhere."

"Close, but no cigar. I fell sleep in my work clothes and I was getting ready for my day of lounging around, then got a little sidetracked."

John still wasn't buying it, but he knew by now that sometimes he just had to let things go or else his dad's shenanigans would drive him up the wall. He gently squirmed away from his dad's arm in favor of getting the plates ready. "How did you get sidetracked?"

"Well, I can't possibly start my day on an empty stomach. As soon as I put one leg in I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything else until I had some food in my system."

"Well, if you couldn't continue doing anything after you put one leg in your pants, how's you get the other leg in?"

"Sometimes you just have to man through things, John. I knew you would be absolutely scarred if you saw me in my boxers."

"As if I've never seen that," he chuckled and held out the plates. Mr. Egbert then placed two pancakes on each. 

"I like to keep my underwear under my clothes, thank you very much. That's where they belong, but I will admit that I do slip up every now and then. Enough about my clothes though. Would you like anything else? The stove's still hot."

John shook his head. "Nah. I'll be fine with this." He sat his plate down on the counter and broke out the syrup, drowning the fluffy pancakes in the sugary sweetness.

"Careful there," his dad said and took the bottle from him, both to keep him from adding any more to his food and so he can put some on his own pancakes. 

"I was. And hey, are you gonna be using your computer today?" As nice and lenient his dad was, his freedom was rather controlled. He was allowed to do a lot of stuff as long as he asked and kept the man updated. It could be annoying at times, but for the most part it felt like a fair trade off. 

"Actually, yes." Boy, was this man confusing. John still hasn't pieced together what he was doing today. "But since I'll be on the computer, I won't be needing my tablet. Feel free to use it once I see that you finished up your chores. Take out the trash, clean your room, you know the drill."

"Okay, cool." That was just as easy as he thought it was going to be. His room wasn't even that dirty to begin with. 

"And John?"

Mr. Egbert caught him right as he shoved a nice chunk of his pancakes in his face. Since he couldn't talk, John made a "Hm?" sound and looked over to the man. 

"Don't shove everything in one space. I know you have a habit of doing that, even when you're eating," he teased and poked the boy's puffed out cheek. John couldn't laugh or else he would choke, but man, it was a hard thing to fight. "Put effort into organizing your stuff. That way you'll know where things are and you won't have to spend time looking for all of your stuff."

It took John a moment, but he finally swallowed his food and was able to talk again. "I will, I will. I know how to clean my room."

"Good. Then maybe we should have a lesson on keeping it clean."

"Don't you have a job to do?"

"You know my job as a dad comes first, but alright. I think we can save that lesson for another time. Oh hey, look. There's a bird in the window." He pointed over to the small window above the sink and John couldn't help but look. 

"I don't see a-" he started as he turned back around, catching his dad stealing some of his pancakes just because he could. "You have your own pancakes!"

"Yours looked better," he laughed and didn't fight with John as the kid reached over and stole some of his pancakes to even things out. "You also need to learn to stop being so gullible, but actually, life would be less fun that way."

"You're such a dork." There was no way John could be mad at his dad over stuff like this. It was always best to play along. Life was more fun that way. 

"You have my genes, so that makes you a dork as well."

John couldn't fight that logic, so he stuffed his face as a cheap way to get out of talking. Breakfast came and went. Mr. Egbert gathered up all the dishes while John gathered up all of the trash. He threw the bag into the bin outside and then placed a new bag in the now empty trashcan. Not wanting to waste any more time, John hurried off to his room and was so, so grateful that he didn't have much to clean up. He threw the dirty clothes that were lying around the room in his hamper, straightened up his desk, made his bed, and neatly placed everything else under his bed, like they had some kind of purpose to be there. After that, he dusted his room and the living room and picked up some of the bigger pieces of dirt by hand just so the floor wouldn't look too messy and he wouldn't be forced to break out the vacuum. 

With all of that taken care of, his dad went to inspect his work. While John often times did fall for his dad's antics, now was not one of those times. Hid dad looked like he was inspecting every inch of the rooms he cleaned, but John knew he was just playing it up. 

After the man's "inspection," he ruffled John's hair and gave him permission to use the tablet. To express his thanks, John gave the man a hug and then grabbed the tablet from the coffee table in the living room. He went into his newly cleaned room and made himself comfortable on the bed. 

Once he was comfy, he pulled the little slip of paper out from under his pillow and read it over again. Now that he was awake, so many questions ran through his head. Who was this person? How did they know where to find him? What do they even want with him? Well, it looks like there's only one way to find out. He opened up Pesterchum and found the chumhandle. Admittedly, tentacleTherapist was a cooler chumhandle than ghostyTrickster. Maybe he should get around to changing his own chumhandle sometime. Oh well. Here goes nothing.

\--ghostyTrickster [GT] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT]--

GT: hello?

\--  
Now that first contact was made, all John had to do was wait for a response, that is, if this person wanted to respond. Maybe this is some kind of weird prank, and if it is, those poor souls won't know what hit them when John goes in for revenge. He can take a lot of stuff, but no one outside of his family can out prank him, and even with his family, he always tries to make things even. It took a few minutes, but finally someone answered.

\--  
TT: Hello there.  
TT: Before we begin, I want to apologize for possibly weirding you out.  
TT: I know it isn't everyday that your receive an ominous message taped to you window in the dead of night.  
TT: But you must admit that it added a little spice to your bland night.  
GT: i guess you have a point there. it was kinda creepy, but also kinda cool.  
GT: so i also guess that there's something important going on? i mean, if there isn't then you really wasted a perfectly good opportunity with this whole mystery shtick.   
GT: now that i think about it, the shtick wouldn't really be wasted if you were doing this as a joke, but just so you know, i take no mercy on fellow pranksters.  
TT: I assure you I mean no harm.   
TT: If anything, I would like to be your ally. Perhaps even a friend.  
TT: I know that this is far from the best terms for beginning an alliance, but here me out if you will.  
TT: My name is Rose and I have powers such as yourself.  
TT: I suppose once could label my powers under clairvoyance, hence why I was able to find out where you live, John.  
GT: okay. now you're kinda creeping me out. like, way more than before.  
TT: My apologies, but I wanted you to know that I wasn't doing this out of a random act where I stick a note on a stranger's window and see what happens next.  
GT: so why me then? what's this whole thing about?   
TT: I wanted to warn you about the program you're in.   
GT: why? they're not, like, evil or something, are they?  
TT: tell me, do you even know the name of the program?  
GT: ...  
GT: holy crap!   
TT: Exactly.  
TT: There is a reason why they have kept information away from you. Very, very tedious legal reasons, but I will happily break things down for you in bite sized chunks.  
TT: The program's name on any brochure they have given your guardian is Alliance of Teachers for Bettering Powerful Youth, or ATBPY. Clearly, that name is far from catchy, so now it's merely BETA. Whether that id an acronym for something or someone forgot to turn off caps lock, I'm not entirely for sure.   
TT: BETA claims it's service is to help children with powers learn to control them. Possibly even allow them to dress up in funny outfits and take to the streets, fighting petty crime and then some.   
TT: The first few weeks even seem like you truly are going to better the world by being in such a place, but that's how they trick you.  
TT: Slowly, they deconstruct your morals and build them up again, shaping them how they wanted the morals to be looked. If you refuse, the punishments will be staggering.  
GT: wait wait.  
GT: so you, a complete stranger, is telling me that i shouldn't trust this place?  
TT: Very good. It's nice to know you can comprehend words.  
GT: :/  
TT: I would not make this stuff up, John. All I want to do is warn you that all that glitters is not gold.  
GT: and how exactly do you know?  
TT: I was once in the program as well. I started much younger. My mother signed me up when I was eight. I would have fallen victim to their ruse as well if it weren't for my powers of sight.   
TT: I saw what happened behind closed doors. They do not wish to make you better. They wish to make you efficient. A mind controlled dummy they can take advantage of.   
GT: but they seem so nice though...  
TT: That is stage one in their deception. They earn your trust. Stage two is where they demand your loyalty. Stage three is when there is no escape.  
GT: okay, so let's say that all of this isn't a load of bullhockey. out of all the kids in the program, why are you telling /me/ this? do you go around warning everyone? or is this just a me thing?  
TT: Honestly? I'm not entirely for sure myself why my crystal ball chose you. Only time will tell.   
GT: really now? since your crystal ball has all of the answers, can it tell you what i'm doing now?  
TT: Yes it can. You're curled up on your bed, holding this conversation with a tablet.  
GT: .......  
TT: You shifted and now you're sitting up, looking around for what I assume hidden cameras. There are none.   
GT: stop being so creepy!  
TT: You wanted proof, did you not?  
GT: you got me.  
GT: so what am I supposed to do? wait around until i'm a mind controlled monkey? if that even is a possibility.  
TT: It very well is. For now, I don't have a good answer for you.  
GT: if you don't know, then how did you get out of the program?  
TT: Faked my death and moved to a state all the way across the country.  
TT: I don't think you would like that option.  
GT: now i'm calling bull.  
TT: Would you like some proof?  
GT: sure?  
\--

The next thing she sent was a link to a picture. A funeral pamphlet with a little girl's picture on the front. Blonde hair barely reached her shoulders. Her face was pale, as if she was dead already when her picture was taken. Based on the generic background and nice clothes she was wearing, it looked like a school picture. Rose Lalonde. Gone too soon.

\--  
TT: I'm going to send you a picture of myself now. To cease any speculations, tell me what to do for my photo.  
GT: uh, okay.  
GT: hmmmm  
GT: put a finger at the end of your nose and stick out your tongue.  
TT: Going for the unusual stuff, huh? Smart.  
\--

It only took a second for the next link to come his way. Sure enough, it was the same girl, now looking around his age, with a finger on the end of her nose and her tongue sticking out. Her hair was even shorter now and it looked like she was experimenting with some pretty dark makeup. 

\--  
GT: wow. you're good!  
TT: I'm honest.   
TT: The best advice I can give to you now is to be careful. Stand your ground and keep your morals strong. I will do everything in my power to try and get you and your teammates out of BETA.  
GT: why not try and get everyone out?  
TT: Baby steps, John. I'm a clairvoyant. Not a miracle worker.   
GT: reasonable enough  
TT: Very. Well John, I suppose I better get off of here. My mother is in need of my assistance.  
TT: Feel free to talk to me on here any time.  
TT: I also have a funny feeling that we're going to be seeing a lot of each other soon.  
GT: okay?  
GT: totally not creepy. at all.  
TT: You'll learn to get used to it.  
GT: seriously not helping your cause.  
TT: My cause was to inform you about BETA and for you to keep your guard up. Are you informed?  
GT: i guess so, yeah. but you also said that you wanted to be my friend.  
TT: That is true, but I also realize friendships don't blossom within one conversation. They need time and nutrients to grow. I will happily wait if you give me the time.  
GT: do i even have a choice in the matter?  
TT: Not really. No.  
GT: great.  
TT: I assure you that your time will not be wasted. For now though, goodbye John. Remember, stay safe. 

\--tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering ghostyTrickster [GT]--

John laid down at the bed, staring at screen. All of this felt weird. Was he supposed to trust this random stranger? She seemed trustworthy, but so did the people at BETA. He laid the tablet down on his chest and stared up at the ceiling. What exactly was going on? It was hard to tell and John wasn't entirely for sure who he could count on. He couldn't tell this to his dad because they had a rule about talking to strangers on the internet. He couldn't talk to Dave or Karkat since they would probably think he was full of shit. And lord knows he couldn't talk to anyone at BETA about this. 

With a sigh, he rubbed his eyes and walked out into the living room. Dad was still working on something and John wanted to get his mind off of things, so watching Ghostbusters for the umpteenth time sounded like a good plan. He put in the movie and then made himself comfortable on the couch. 

This has to be the most dramatic week ever, and the worst thing about it is the drama was only starting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or hit me up at ghostlyfluffster.tumblr.com.  
> Next chapter: Paranoia is not a fun thing to deal with.


	5. It's Only Fair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why must public parks be open to everyone? Especially bullies. Bullies should have their own park.

All John wanted as one good, peaceful day. Sure, he enjoyed being in a program that could teach him how to use his powers, but at the same time said program was looking shadier and shadier the more he thought about it. Rose brought up a few good points in their conversation, but it wasn't like John could do anything with that information other than keep his eyes peeled for trouble. In a way, that was just part of becoming a hero, right? Keeping a look out for anything that could stir trouble and finding a way to stop it. He also had to be realistic about this. He was only ten years old and BETA was a government funded program, well, at least he assumed it was. As said before, he can never be too certain. For now, he was just going to reluctantly go along with the flow, ready to hop out in a moment's notice. 

However, he didn't have to worry about training until tomorrow afternoon. Saturdays were lazy days but Sundays were used as fun days. If a Sunday wasn't used as a fun day, then the whole week had the potential to be ruined, and due to how well last week went, John wanted nothing more than for this Sunday to be extraordinary. Well, more extraordinary than most Sundays. Most of the time, Sundays just turn out to be lazy Saturdays, but after dinner his dad would find a movie for the both of them to watch while eating popcorn that was made on the stove rather than in the microwave. That popcorn was by far the best popcorn in existence.

That tradition took place at night though. John had the entire day to make something out of it. Well, the entire afternoon since the morning was spent sleeping on both of the Egbert's parts. When eleven rolled around, John was already in his casual clothes and thinking about what he could do. The view outside looked like it came straight out of a cozy vacation postcard. The sky was faded blue and puffy white clouds covered the otherwise blinding sun. The leaves on the trees blew gently with the breeze and John knew that today was the perfect day to be outside. 

The scent of buttery, toasted bread took him out of his thoughts and refused to release him from its delicious hold. Why did everything Dad made have to smell so good? John wanted to continue his stream of thoughts, but it proved to be pointless now that something more important caught his attention.

John exited his room and stopped at the top of the stairs. Going down them one by one would be too easy. Too easy and too boring. After a careful evaluation that he was out of his dad's sight, John squatted down and then took a leap. Of course jumping down a flight of stairs was a stupid thing that almost every child did at least once, but John had nothing to worry about. The moment his feet left the floor, cool wind surrounded his frame and gracefully guided him down to the bottom of the stairs. He grinned at his ability to stick the landing and then strutted into the kitchen. Sunday lunches were nothing special, but that has never stopped Mr. Egbert from making even the simplest of meals wonderful. It looked like today was going to be his special grilled cheese and a handful of homemade onion rings. John would be lucky to get three of those bad boys, but hey, at least he got some.

"I see that you're finally up," his dad said with taunt in his voice. John couldn't help but snicker at it as he grabbed two plates and placed them on the counter.

"I've been up for a while. I just felt like getting out of my room now."

"Well, I sure hope that you don't plan on spending all day cooped up in your room. If you do, I hope that you plan on cleaning it, which should take you all of half an hour at the most."

Even that was half an hour too long for John. "No, no. I don't plan on spending all day in there. Today's too pretty to spend it inside. I was actually wondering if I could go to the park. You don't have to come with me though."

"I don't?" the man asked with an amused look. "If I don't have to join you, then how to you plan on getting there?"

"I can take my bike. It feels like I haven't rode it in forever and that needs to change." He nodded in a matter-of-fact manner with just brought more amusement onto his dad's face. The man was trying his best to fight it, but it was practically impossible to do so when he saw the determination on his son's face. 

"What if something were to happen to you? You could fall out of a tree or get abducted if I'm not there to supervise you," the man said and placed the sandwiches on the plates. John took his plate and sat down at the table. 

"Nothing's going to happen to me. I'm too big to kidnap and I'm strong too, so if I fall out of a tree I won't get hurt that much. I won't get hurt period because I can use the wind to cushion my fall," John countered and took a bite out of his hot and toasty lunch. It was a little too hot to eat right now, but it was definitely worth it though. 

"You know that you can't rely on your powers all of the time. You know how I feel about you using your powers in public. I understand that it's not that uncommon nowadays, but I believe the best route of action-"

"Is taking the lowest route possible," John finished in a well practiced mumble. "I know, Dad. I'm just saying that I'm old enough to, you know, start doing things by myself. I'm probably just going to ride my bike around the park a few times and then come home. If anyone tries to grab me, I'll yell really loud and find the nearest person with kids." Or fight them, but he'd rather leave that information out when talking to his protective father. 

"So what you're saying is that you're old enough to go out and do fun things by yourself but you're not old enough to do your own laundry?" the man countered and sat down at the table with John. John opened his mouth a time or two before shutting it permanently when he realized he didn't have a solid rebuttal. With a laugh, Mr. Egbert moved his arm and ruffled his son's dark hair. John moved away and tried to be mad, but it was hard to fight that smile wanting to appear on his face. 

"I'll tell you what. Since my son is clearly become a strong and independent man, I'll let you go to the park by your lonesome. However, there are a few conditions you have to meet if you ever want to leave the house by yourself ever again."

John immediately perked up. "I'll do whatever you say," he replied, a little too eagerly than what he would like to admit. 

"First and foremost, you have to be back home by, or better yet before, three. Not a minute later." John nodded to the demand as he nibbled on his sandwich. "Second, no using your powers. At all. Despite popular belief, I do know when you use your powers, like only a moment ago when you jumped down the stairs." The man smirked and John sunk down in his chair a little bit. "Call it a father's intuition. Finally, when you get home I'm going to show you the ropes on how to do the laundry all by yourself."

Man, John really didn't want to add a chore to his growing list of responsibilities. Growing up sucks. However, it only took him a moment to consider the deal before he finally nodded. "Okay. Deal." His dad didn't raise an uncultured son. John stuck him hand out to shake and Mr. Egbert seemed to swell up with pride for just a moment before he met his son's smaller hand, giving it a firm shake. 

"You are growing into a fine young man." Here it comes. "No matter what you want to be when you get to be my age, that handshake will your key to open up opportunities. I'm proud to see that you already have an excellent grasp on it." Dad could never just let things be, now could he? 

"Whatever you say, Dad." Now that John had the man's permission to leave, he wasted no time inhaling the food on his plate. The man should have seen that coming from a mile away. Once the sandwich and his onion rings were nothing but items of the past, John hopped out of his chair and was about to leave the room, but quickly turned on his heels and rushed over to hid dad's side, giving the man a hug. "Thanks. I'll see you later."

"And who said you have permission to leave just yet?" Still, Mr. Egbert wrapped a surprisingly strong arm around John's growing body. It was hard to believe he was getting this tall this quickly. John's eyes looked betrayed as the question hung in the air, but it was quickly dismantled from Mr. Egbert's laugh. "I'm playing. Go and have fun. Most importantly, be safe. I love you, John," he finished with a squeeze and then released John.

"Love you too," John said, almost reluctantly. Now that he was in the double digits he shouldn't have to say embarrassing stuff like that, but the man did just grant him his first taste of freedom. It would be rude to shrug him off. 

Now that he definitely had permission, John scampered out of the kitchen and tugged on his clearly worn shoes. "I'll be back before three! Bye Dad!" Before the man could get his reply out, John threw open the door and ran outside, embracing the perfect day with open arms. The temperature was just right to wear almost anything without suffering from extreme heat or coldness, so long as the attire was appropriate. John's cargo shorts and Superman tee combination seemed to do just the trick to get the most out of today's weather. 

After taking a brief moment to simply enjoy the fresh air, John scampered over to the side of his house. He was lucky that his dad didn't get rid of his trusted bike now that he rarely used it. Honestly, John never really used it much to begin with. He's always seen a ragtag group of kids, peddling down the streets in their rusted old bikes in the movies, but that seemed to be one of those things that only happened in the movies. John couldn't help but fantasize what that adventure would be like. He grabbed the handles of the bike and swiped some of the dirt off of the seat, then walked it over to the driveway. His helmet dangled from one of the handles and it honestly looked a little gross from being abandoned and forced to deal with the elements since the last time John decided to use it, which was probably a long time ago. John stuck out his tongue and made a "bleh" sound as he cleaned the protective wear using his bare hand and the end of his shirt. He couldn't believe that he was going to place that thing on his head, but he had no other choice. He knew that if his dad found out he didn't wear his helmet, then nothing but trouble would come out of it. Plus, John wouldn't be surprised if his dad was watching out the window right now. 

Reluctantly, John placed the helmet on his head and tightened the straps. He then mounted his bike and slowly peddled off down the sidewalk. It took him a second to figure out how to ride a bike again, but once he got going there was no stopping him. It takes forever to learn how to ride a bike, but with plenty of fatherly instructions, that kind of knowledge never goes away. 

Although his destination was the park, it was fun to simply look around his neighborhood. He often looked over the details of his tiny suburb, but now that he had nothing better to distract him, it was honestly kind of fun to take in his surroundings. Some of his neighbors had cool flower gardens, some had tiny children toys in their front yards, one still even had their Christmas lights up. Well, there was no need to take them down now. 

By simply enjoying his time, the trip didn't seem too long. Before he knew it, he had to keep his attention focused on crossing a few streets and then the tarnished gates of the public park came into view. As much fun as this trip has been, John peddled faster, eager to get to his destination. He entered the gates and slowed down a little bit, careful to stay on the sidewalk since he didn't want to deal with the trouble that came with getting his bike out of the grass. Although this was simply a public park, the staff did a fairly good job at keeping it in tip top shape. The playground equipment had chipping paint and some rust, but they were still being used like they were brand new by a group of smaller kids and their parents. John may have a tire swing in his front yard, but that didn't even compare to the fun he had when his dad brought him to the park when he was younger. Between his dad's strength and John's windy powers, the swings were used solely to see how high he could go. Sometimes they would switch and John would be in charge of pushing his dad, but the man normally didn't get anywhere close to John's casual swing height. What could John say? The man was too heavy for his child arms to push. 

There was only so much a party of one could do at the park. He couldn't play tag, well, he could but it would be an incredibly unfair game, he couldn't play some one-v-one basketball in the court that had a few weeds growing in the cracks of the concrete, he couldn't even have someone to challenge him to do insane tricks on the equipment. That has never stopped John before. He was used to the solitary life, and while having friends always seemed like a dream he was going to bring into reality one day, he was actually pretty okay with being by himself for the most part. He had his dad and his cousins every now and then, and really, that's all that a person needed. 

He parked his bike at the bike rack, and seeing how there was only one more there he figured it was going to be safe. Still, he placed it at the opposite end and kicked himself a little bit for forgetting to bring his lock. He honestly can't remember where that thing is, but let's be real here. Who would want to steal a rusty child sized bike as opposed to the shiny red new one on the opposite end? Only a being of pure evil, that's who. Happily, John took off his helmet and let it hang from the bike's handle, really not caring if that item was stolen or not. His hair was flattened down, but John managed to mess it up again by running his hands through it a few times. It was a little messier than he normally likes it, but it was going to happen sooner or later so he might as well deal with it now. 

After a moment of thinking over his options, John sprinted over to the jungle gym. Not only was it fun to climb and swing around on, but if he was going to be a hero one day he needed as much upper body strength as he could get. Due to the nice temperatures of the day, the metal wasn't hot or cold, which made it perfect to climb around on. Although John was ten and growing older by the minute, his imagination ran wild. He was no longer on jungle gym bars. Instead, he was dangling right above a giant glass aquarium with vicious and starving sharks swimming around, ready to fight for John's flesh and bones. One wrong move and he would be fish chow, but if he could make it across he could make his daring escape and fight the villain. All he needed was a little momentum and he could make it to the next bar. He kicked his feet, swinging his body and waited for the right moment. Almost....almost...When he finally got to the point he wanted, John released both of his hands from the bar and grabbed on to the other one. Sure, it would be safer and easier to go one hand at a time, but simplicity was for chumps. 

The sharks were now jumping out of the water, trying to get the first bite and drag the kid down. John kept his feet together and increased his pace, jumping to the next bar way faster than then previous one. However, the next bar caught John off guard. It was too slippery to securely grab, so before John knew it, he went tumbling down to his demise. Okay, not really. The wind caught him an inch above the ground, breaking his fall before it dispersed, gently laying him on the ground. Looks like the sharks won this round. 

The easiest way to go about this was to just use his powers to fly across, but as he said before, going the easy way was for chumps. John stood up and brushed the wood chips off of his clothes, and what he didn't get, the wind blew off. He then looked back up at the bar. Was the bar slippery or was it just his hands? They did feel a little sweaty. Sweaty and gross. He wiped them off on his shorts but it just made the feeling even grosser. Ew. He glanced around the park and headed in the direction of the restrooms. He hated every and all public restrooms and tried to use them as little as possible, but there were just some things that were unavoidable. Plus, it wasn't like he needed to pee or anything. He just needed to wash his hands. In and out. Surely he would live. 

The closer he got to the restroom, the more and more he was regretting his decision. The wind was his friend and often tried its best to filter out any unwanted scents, but John didn't need to take in the smoke infested air to know that there were people smoking on the inside. The least they could have done was stay away from the door. Small and faint signs of smoke escaped through the crack above the door. He should just deal with his gross hands. Ugh. But now they were going to be bothering him the entire time he was here, supposed to be his first free day. Surely it wasn't going to be so bad if he made it quick. In and out and then he can spend the rest of his time avoiding imaginary sharks. 

John took a deep breath and entered the restroom, pushing the door open with his shoulder. The area was filled with smoke and it was best that the wind didn't try to disperse any of it. There were three guys in there, definitely rebellious teenagers. However, the lettermen jackets kind of took John by surprise. Weren't the scary teens supposed to be the ones that wore band shirts that sported naked women devils and had dyed black hair covering their eyes and most of their faces? These guys were muscular with only a little bit of acne on their faces. They seemed to be laughing about something, but as soon as John walked in, all eyes were on him. Both of his feet had barely stepped in the restroom before he already moved to turn back. Washing his hands totally wasn't worth it. However, he quickly found out that someone was standing by the door, like he previously guessed. Now though, that teen was standing in front of the door, blocking John's route for escape. 

Okay. Maybe he was being paranoid. John avoided eye contact and took a step back, then walked over to the sinks. The smoke in the air was burning his eyes already. He really needed to make this quick. The last thing he wanted as to have all of this smoke, or even the stress, trigger an asthma attack. He had his inhaler in his pocket, but he really didn't want to use that thing if he didn't have to. 

"What are you trying to hide from, kid? Afraid of a little smoke?" one of the guys asked. Tall, blond, and deep voiced. It sounded too deep to be his natural voice, but John wasn't going to call him out. John just ducked his head a little more and lathered up his hands with foamy soap from the dispenser. He turned on the water just as he heard footsteps approaching behind him. 

"I'm talkin' to ya, kid. What are ya, deaf? Can ya fuckin' hear me?" He poked the side of John's head and John shrunk away during each hit.

"Leave me alone. I just want to wash my hands and then I'll get out of your hair," John mumbled and tried to regain his composure, but it was a little hard to do just that when he was grabbed by the shoulders and pushed into the center of the room. He almost landed on his butt, but he managed to keep his balance enough to stay on his feet. 

Knowing how this was going to go, John had to find a way to escape before things escalated further. He took a blind sprint to the door, but a rough hand caught his shirt and threw him back into the center, this time forcing him to take a hard fall on his bottom. 

"Deaf and stupid, huh?" another one with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth mocked. This one was redheaded with a fair share of freckles covering his face. "How old are ya, kid?"

"None of your business," John retorted, but that landed him a swift kick to the back, from who, he didn't know. All he knew was that the noise he made was kind of pitiful and that kick hurt like hell. 

"Wrong answer. Get the shit out of your ears and listen closely this time. How fucking old are you?" the redhead went on.

John stayed quiet, but the second kick to his side forced the answer to come out. "T-ten."

"T-ten!" the one by the door mocked with a laugh. He was clearly the more sturdy one of the trio, so that's probably why he was in charge of blocking the door. 

"Well kid," the blond one started, "looks like you finally made it to the double digit club. Congrats. But I do feel kinda bad. I've missed out on ten of your birthdays, so how about I make it up to you?"

"I'd rather you not," John replied without much thinking. That carelessness got him a swift kick to the face. The force from it sent him back. His back hit the floor first, but the back of his head took the hardest hit. He cried out and rubbed the back of his head. He should have rolled away or tried to get up again, but his reaction time took a bit of a blow. 

A heavy foot came down on his chest and caused John to cry out again, this time louder since it hurt way more. His hands instinctively wrapped around the foot, desperately trying his best to push the redheaded guy's shoe off of him. It wasn't working though. The more he fought, the more force came down on his chest. "Didn't your mommy ever teach you that it's rude to refuse someone's gift?" 

"Don't worry though. I'll look past it," the blond guy said and stepped up to the helpless kid. He pulled his foot back and then gave a hard kick to John's side. "There's your first present."

By now, John was panicking. His breathing became harder and the wind was starting to pick up. Another kick came down, this time targeted to John's face and the wind fought back by blowing the blond guy back a foot with a sudden gust. 

"What the fuck was that?" he asked. His former tone was nothing but disgusting taunting, but now there was newfound and slow burning fury in his voice. The redheaded one stomped down on John's chest and then met the same fate as the previous teen. John coughed and sputtered and covered his chest with his arms as he rolled over one his side. It was getting hard to breathe and John wasn't for sure if that was because of the smoke or the size eleven lung crusher. Probably both. John wanted nothing more than to fight back, but he just couldn't. This wasn't how soon to be heroes acted. The didn't curl up on the floor and gasp for air. They fought back! However, until John could catch his breath again, that wasn't going to happen. 

Someone was pounding on the other side of the restroom door and John could only hope that they managed to come in. However, they were probably no match against the human bolder. A rough hand grabbed his upper arm and pulled him up. John wasn't able to stand for long because before he could gather his senses, he was slammed into the wall. He let out another cry, but that was soon covered with a coughing fit. 

"You're one of those freaks, aren't ya?" John wasn't entirely for sure which one was talking, nor did he think it was entirely important. The pounding on the door grew louder. 

"Blow us away again, I dare you."

John opened his mouth to talk, but a punch to the center of his chest gasped him to sputter.

The guy standing guard cried out and moved away from the door right as another punch landed across John's face. His glasses flew off in the process and John winced at the light, only to have his eyes widen when he recognized the person in the door frame. His hands were placed in his pockets, one leg held more weight than the other and for a brief moment, John caught a look of surprise on the kid's face.

"God...can't a guy just take a piss in peace?" Dave groaned and stepped inside. The guy who should have been blocking the door went in for a punch, but Dave easily ducked underneath it. He grabbed the guy's wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. While John's vision was horrible without his glasses, John could clearly make out smoke rising from the guy's arm. He cried out right before Dave shoved him into a wall and let him go.

"Listen fellas, I don't want to fight," Dave said and held up his now flaming hands. "Just let the doofus go, let me take a leak, and I won't melt your fucking skin. I think it's a fair enough deal."

The other two looked at Dave and then to each other. John's arm was released, but he was too dizzy to stand on his own. He sunk down to the floor as the two teens menacingly stepped up to Dave. The blond one then took a running start and was about to swing his leg for a forceful kick, but Dave grabbed it. In a swift movement, Dave ducked underneath the leg and threw the limb down to the ground. The fabric on the teen's pants had a flame to it. He shouted and swatted at his ankle, desperate to put it out. 

The redheaded one looked like he was going to take a running start at Dave, but he clearly learned something from his colleague's mistake. He turned on his heels and took off running out of the restroom, soon followed by the bolder and finally by the blond guy. Like hell they wanted to get their asses handed to them even further by a freakish kid. 

Dave shook his hands a few times to get the flames to go out and then turned to John, shaking his head a bit as he walked over to the poor kid. All John could do was look up at Dave, feeling more embarrassed than anything else. Dave was definitely going to hold this over his head for a long time. Once his frozen state began to melt, shaky hands reached out to grab the fallen glasses. He wiped them off with the end of his shirt and then placed them on his face. 

With a bit of a sigh, Dave leaned down and extended his harm, keeping his hand in a tight fist. "C'mon loser, I'll help you up. Three v. one ain't a fair fight." John was honestly shocked from Dave's gesture, but he took it anyway. He grabbed in to Dave's arm and pushed himself up while Dave also moved back help pull. Once John was back to an upright position he released Dave's arm and dug around his pocket for his inhaler. He couldn't catch his breath for the life of him, but the inhaler did its job. 

"Oh my god, you even have an inhaler. You're the epitome of a nerd, Egbert."

"A lot of people use inhalers, Dave," John said once he calmed himself down. Those kicks hurt, but he was still able to walk around just fine. He walked over to the sink and washed his now dirtier hands as he looked himself over in the mirror. He didn't have any cuts or a bloody noise, but he was for sure there was going to be a big bruise on his cheek in a little while. 

"Okay, hold up. You get the shit beat out of you and the first thing you do is wash your hands?" the kid asked as he walked over to the urinal. Sure, it was a little rude to talk to a guy while he was taking a leak, but Dave didn't look like he cared all too much. 

"Well, yeah, I guess. I came in here just to wash them because they were feeling super gross, but you can see how great that plan turned out." John shrugged and turned the water off with his wrist, then grabbed a paper towel to dry them off. 

"You're getting weirder and nerdier by the minute, I swear." Dave shook his head again and then stepped away from the urinal when his business was done and his pants were zipped. His previous flaming hands spent a solid second under the water before he shoved them back into his jean pockets. Without another word, Dave took his leave. Unfortunately, John didn't get the memo that Dave didn't want to hang around him for too long. With a little skip in his step, not so much because he was happy but more along the lines that he needed to catch up with Dave, John followed close behind him.

"Dave, wait!"

Dave groaned and turned on his heels when they were finally out of the bathroom to face John. Oh, the sweet smell of fresh air has never been more appreciated. "Dude, just because I saved your sorry ass doesn't mean that gives you a pass to follow me around like a little kicked puppy desperate to be loved and cuddled to make up for the potentially traumatizing event that just happened. I just happened to know you, and believe it or not, I have some morals I like to stick by. For one, it ain't right for a giant to pick on the little guy. For two, ganging up on a little guy like that ain't even right. For three, bystanders are just as guilty as the actual bullies. Now that you're safe and kinda okay, you can go off and continue your own nerdy business and play Magic cards at the picnic tables with your nerdy friends. Strider, out." Dave started to walk again, but John just continued to follow, not even caring that Dave's intentions were clear now.

"How did you even get in there? The guy was blocking the door."

Dave groaned and threw back his head. "I heated up the door, dingus. He was leaning against it so it got too hot for him to handle. Are we done now? I want to be done now."

"Nope. Why are you here anyway?"

"Geez, I didn't save you just to be interrogated. I don't know if you know this or not, but this place, right here, is called a public park. You better hold on to your socks because I'm about to blow you out of the damn water with the next thing I'm going to say. Are you ready? Yeah, well, public parks are...made for everyone. No matter who or what you are, you can swing on the swings or play a game of basketball and no one can tell you to leave unless you're doing something illegal. I know. Mind blowing, isn't it?"

John rolled his eyes and scoffed. "I know that."

"Then why are ya askin' stupid questions like that?"

"I meant, like, are you here with anyone? Are you hanging out with some of your friends?"

"That is absolutely none of your business. I'm not here asking you why you're chilling out and getting your ass beat in a park. Instead, I'm asking, no wait, begging you to please leave me alone. Just because we're both in a stupid program doesn't mean that you automatically have permission to hang out with me outside of the program. Hell, you don't even have permission to hang out with me in the program. We were just grouped together and we have to deal with that. Nothing more, nothing less." Dave stopped at the bike rack and squatted down at the shiny red bike John was eyeing before. So Dave must have been here for a while. He unlocked the lock and then stood back up.

"That's a really cool bike," John decided to say after a moment of letting the silence hang in the air. It was too generic of a compliment for his liking, but it was the only one he could come up with. 

"So you do have good taste in something."

"Wanna race?" John asked before really processing his words. Dave rose a curious brow, but a small snickered escaped his lips when he looked over and saw the rusted old blue bike on the opposite end of the rack. 

"I don't think that would be fair, man. That thing looks like it can barely keep itself together, let alone compete in the tour de Strider."

"It's a lot sturdier than it looks. I didn't have a single problem with it on the way here," John huffed and strutted over to his his trusted bike, quickly removing the kickstand and hopping on. 

"This is gonna be sad, but alright. If, no, when I win, you have seriously got to leave me alone."

"I wouldn't be so confident that will happen, Dave. Only one of us can be the winner, and that's going to be me. When I win, I get to hang out with you whenever I want."

Dave thought about it for a second and took a seat on his bike. "You're not gonna win, but if by some force of the universe you do win, I want to make a condition to that rule. Neither of us are allowed to go over to each other's places. I don't want your nerd germs all over my apartment. We can meet anywhere public, but like I said, I'm gonna win so I'm not too worried about it."

"That's fair, yeah. You know that the sidewalk here is pretty much just a big circle, right?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Just making sure. I say we go once around the sidewalk and the first person to reach the rack wins."

"I'm game."

With a competitive nod from both parties, the boys wheeled their bikes around the rack and stopped once they were side by side, both itching to go. "On the count of three," John said. He glanced over at Dave and then stared straight ahead. His torso was burning with pain thanks to his hunched over position, but he could live, he was sure of it. His hands flexed and then gripped the handlebars firmly.

"One...two..."

"Three!" Dave shouted and took off. John was ready for the surprise, so his feet were ready to take off at a moment's notice. He peddled with all of his might, the pain from his torso becoming greater and greater the more he was forced to move. If there was a bright side to any of this, it looked like Dave was taking this just as seriously as John was and didn't think this was some kind of casual game. The natural wind blew against his face and hair (like hell he was going to wear that dorky helmet in the race when he could just station it down by the racks). As much as the wind could give John an advantage, he wasn't a cheater. He was going to win this race fair and square. John even surprised himself with how well he was doing against an athletic kid like Dave. Sure, the blond was up, but not by much. They were practically neck and neck, well, more like chest and neck. A jogger casually avoided their path by moving to the other side of the sidewalk. 

To be perfectly honest, John forgot how large this park was. His forehead was sweaty and his breathing was becoming shallow again and he knew for a fact that they were only at the halfway mark. His edge was also starting to dull. Dave was inching further away from him and despite giving it his all, he didn't appear to be breaking a sweat. John swallowed hard and pushed himself a little further. A little passed 100% of his efforts to get back to where he was, fighting for the lead with Dave. Every so often, he caught Dave glancing at him. His protected eyes gave no indication on what he was thinking.

The racks were in sight and both kids were giving it their all and then some. However, their goal was obstructed by a neon green ball that bounced on the sidewalk and into the grass, soon followed by a kid that ran out to get it. This wouldn't have been much a problem if he didn't appear so suddenly and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk like a deer caught in headlights. The boys grunted and swerved out of the way. John managed to stay on the sidewalk and quickly get back on track but Dave wasn't so fortunate. He swerved into the grass, which itself was a problem. However, the sudden swerve really threw him off to the point where he lost his balance and fell over. Acknowledging his defeat, he let a few curses flew and hit the ground with a frustrated fist, not even bothering to get up to redeem himself. He knew he lost, so what was the point. 

John took a look behind him and was so close to the racks, but he knew that there was no way he was going to be able to accept that victory. It just wouldn't be fair, even though the benefits would be so nice. As slyly as he could, he turned his bike around and stopped when he reached Dave. He put the kickstand down and got off of his bike.

"Comin' to gloat?" Dave groaned and rolled over on his back, pushing the bike off of him. 

"Actually, I never touched the rack. That wouldn't have been a fair victory. Besides, you were ahead anyway. You would have won." John helped move the bike off of the kid and then held out his hand. "Come on, I'll help you up."

For a moment, Dave just stared at John, mulling over why the kid didn't take the obvious victory and make his life a living hell. Once things got a little awkward, Dave finally reached out and took his hand. Wow, Dave had some pretty warm hands. With the both of their efforts, Dave stood back up and dusted himself off. 

"And since you were going to win, I guess that it would only be fair for me to hold up my end of the deal, huh?" John said with a sad smile. "It's only fair. So...I guess that I'll let you get back to whatever you were going to do." He kicked the kickstand back up and walked with his bike away from Dave. "Bye Dave. I'll see you tomorrow." It was impossible for them to leave each other alone when they were grouped up, after all. However, that was going to happen tomorrow afternoon, which was a long while away from now. Hopefully John will have time to heal up from that beating. His soon-to-be bruises were absolutely killing him right now.

Dave bit his lip and grabbed his bike, setting it back upright. With a sigh, he half-jogged over to John's side. "I think that it was anyone's game, really. You were putting up a fight on that thing. You could have made an underdog victory at the last second."

"I don't think so. You were way too fast for me."

"Well, it's hard to be certain now since we were interrupted, and I don't know about you, but I don't feel like racing again." Actually, he could go another few laps, but seeing how hard John was panting, that probably wasn't a good idea. 

"Yeah. I don't think I can," John shyly admitted. 

"So...since neither of us won, the bet's completely off."

"Looks like it."

Dave paused for a moment and looked at his watch. He took a hand off of his handlebars to rub the back of his neck. "I also time that I should start heading back to my place...but..." he sighed out before continuing, "if you want to meet me here after school on Tuesday you can."

John had to physically stop moving and simply looked at Dave. His face was first full of confusion, but that confusing soon turned into unfathomable joy. "Are you serious right now?!"

"Try not to get your panties in a bunch, bro. It ain't that big of a deal."

John tried to calm himself down, but that was practically impossible. However, he did manage to turn his gaping smile into a closed mouth one. "Yeah, I'll be here."

"A'ight, cool. I would stay and talk, but I need to start heading home. Later loser." Dave gave him a solute and climbed back on his bike. Without looking back, the kid rode down the sidewalk and soon out of John's sight. John stayed in place, watching as Dave left. He had no idea why he was so giddy to hang out with Dave, but maybe this was the first step toward a more positive relationship. Although John was used to being alone, maybe having someone he could count on wouldn't be so bad. It might actually be fun, assuming that Dave was going to stop picking on him one day. 

Once Dave was long out of sight, John looked down at his own watch. He still had plenty of time before he had to be back home, but he went back over to the rack and picked up his helmet. He strapped it on and mounted his bike, careful not to touch the rack. He turned himself around and headed back the way he came. He knew that his dad was going to freak when he saw the bruise on his face, but John could always think of a clever excuse to make the man not worry so much. He could do that later though. For now, all he wanted to do was fantasize a little bit as he headed home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that was a long hiatus, but I'm back and better than ever! Thank you guys for waiting!
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment or check me out at ghostlyfluffster.tumblr.com!


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